Everyone has a weakness. A store they can't walk in without spending a fortune and totally blowing your budget. I have let my Sam's card expire since every time I walk in there I spend $100 on four or five items.

But my real weakness is Trader Joes and Whole Foods. I can't go near those places. If I do, I spend so much money on things that are delicious, yes, but way out of my budget! (I especially fall for the toddler and kid organic snacks, $4 for a box of Teddy Puffs? Sure!)

I Can't Believe it's Not Butter $.98-$.50/1 ip (will double up to $.98)=Free

Betty Crocker Pouch Potatoes $1.09/ea-$.40/1 ip (not currently available, I bet there will be at the beginning of the month!)-$.40/1 Cellfire HERE or Shortcuts HERE-$.25/1 mq 3.28.10 SS {we did not get this in Nashville!}~earn $3 oyno cat wyb 3 Betty Crocker potatoes

**There is a crazy catalina deal going on right now at Food Lion involving Taco bell dinner kits but there's no rhyme or reason to how it's printing. Basically, when you spend $8 or more in Taco Bell kits, you are supposed to get a $3 oyno cat. The total is based off your pre-MVP price, so if you scan your items, then your card, it should print a catalina. Some of the kits are regularly $4.49, on sale for 3/$5. So you buy two for a post MVP price of $3.34 and you should get a $3 oyno cat. You can roll this deal. Some people are reporting that you have to buy the same kind at the same time. I haven't had luck with this deal, I bought two of the same kind and got a $2 oyno cat, then I did the exact same deal and didn't get a cat at all. So who knows. But if you want to try it, and you're at Food Lion anyway... there you go.

I paid for both these transactions using gift cards I have been earning and holding/rolling at Target (Fusion razors, Olay body wash, Sobe Lifewater, etc) I also purchased some Kids Crest using the $1/1 Target q and the $1/1 mq from the 2/21/10 P&G insert and got $.51 overage on each- used that toward the DVD as well, saving even more. :)

Submit for $5 MIR for Band-Aids/Princess and the Frog. HERE is the MIR

Then tomorrow I am buying some Success Rice at Publix with overage and a $.55/1 peelie I found and submitting for the Success/Princess and the Frog $5 MIR found HERE.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Don't forget your free snickers! Clip the $.50/2 Snickers mq from 2.21.10 RP and pick up a few snickers bars. They're on sale for $.50, so after your q doubles, you'll get two for free. (or 38. lol.) I had 19 coupons and I used them all. They're sitting pretty in my freezer. :) The store had tons and tons. My 38 didn't even clear out half of one box at one register. There were probably 50+ at each register.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Ok, so I went ahead and went to HT b/c I really wanted the free coffee. My hub is not a coffee snob and will pretty much drink any coffee, and he drinks a lot of it now. He used to be an over-the-road truck driver and ANYthing I brew at home will be better than some of the nasty stuff found at truck stops. lol. Anyway, so I had my kids and my grandmother with me and I did ok. I did mess up though and pick up the wrong bags of Quaker rice snacks (I picked up the $3 bags instead of the $2 bags), but that was my fault. Then, of course, they micro-analyzed all my coupons and saw that my LaChoy ones said Do Not Double (which I hadn't even noticed) so I wasn't able to get my chow mein noodles. (rats! Would have been free!)But since I was there anyway and it wasn't a special trip, I did get some freebies, so that was nice. And the best part is that even though EVERY single person I saw had coupons or a binder, or a box... nothing I wanted was out of stock! The only thing I wanted to get, but didn't was another JFG coffee. I am considering another trip to Publix on Sunday and I might just swing in to get some more coffee and maybe more Lysol and bread.

If you're in the market for baby wipes, clip out the $.50/1 Huggies wipes q from last week's Smartsource and head to Kroger. Some of the Kroger stores are clearancing the tubs of Huggies natural care, lightly scented wipes- prices found have been between $1.37 and $1.67. With a doubled $.50/1 q that makes these pretty cheap!

$1.10/1 Yoplait Simply Go-Gurt HERE(a side note that this I will try. I won't buy the regular Go-Gurts b/c my daughter eats a TON of yogurt. The last time I bought Go-Gurt, she ate 4 or 5 of them in a day and the next day..well..there were some interesting side effects thanks to all the added coloring. BLECH!)

If you're reading this blog and want to leave a nasty remark about couponers in general, or about me personally, I will not even credit it with a response until you are not so much of a coward that you'll respond with your actual name and not "anonymous".

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Go now (if you haven't already) HERE and join Tropicana Rewards and print a BOGO coupon for Tropicana. (It's only going to be available to print TODAY!)

This week at Publix, Tropicana is on sale 2/$5, since the bogo coupon expires in a fairly short period of time, you'll want to use it soon, so go on Saturday through Tuesday (after the new green adv. buy flyer comes out) and do this (you'll also need to snag a $2.50/juice wyb One-A-Day vitamins blinkie, found at Publix by the juice):

2x Tropicana $2.50/eaOne-A-Day vitamin $5.69

UseBOGO Tropicana mq (=$2.50)$2/1 Publix Vitamin coupon in flyer (if you still have your Publixq from the Family Style magazine, it's for $2.50/1 so that makes it even cheaper)$2/1 One-A-Day vitamin mq$2.50/1 juice blinkie

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

I haven't shopped HT in quite some time. I've been avoiding it and luckily the last few times the deals haven't been THAT great to pull me in.

Unfortunately this time I see a few things that would be great to score free and since I'll already be down there on Wednesday, and have my grandmother with me (to make the trip worth it- 20 q's for her and 20 for me) I guess I'll swing by there and see if there are any freebies left by the time I get there.

I know, I should be thankful for the great deals, but I am just sad that Kroger hasn't been matching! I find HT very difficult to maneuver what with the rules and regulations. I'm thinking positive thoughts that Kroger will match it this time around though.

If you see any HT triples items YOU are planning on snagging, share them!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Make some money at Rite Aid this week. Buy $50 worth of participating J&J products and get a $25 Rite Aid gift card. I earned mine by "buying" free stuff. Carefree (a few weeks ago) and now Visine and Stayfree! Band-Aids are also on sale this week and count. I have heard rumors that the J&J white bar soap counts too, but I can't confirm that. (there's a $1/1 in the ad and some of the J&J coupons will work on it)

Friday, March 19, 2010

There's a few q's expiring soon that you might be able to get some good deals out of.As always, overage is 100% YMMV. Depending on your store, the mood of the cashier, the phase of the moon, rotation of the earth, etc and so on.

*$1.50/1 ANY Vicks product3.7.10 P&GThere are lots of ways and places to use this q. Think small. It does not excude trial, so at a store you know will give you overage, use it on the small packs of cough drops, or the travel sized packs of Nyquil/Dayquil.*Free Puffs wyb 2 Vicks Products 2.7.10 P&Gwhen you get your free Vicks above, be sure to also get your free Puffs!

I am thinking I may stock up on MORE cheese at Food Lion this week! Luckily, I just discovered that it freezes nicely- just toss the entire bag of shredded cheese in the freezer and thaw when needed.

There's a new Kraft shredded cheese BOGO blinkie showing up in Food Lion stores (snagged some today) and it pairs really well with the current Kraft event. ($5 off instantly wyb 5)This event has a limit of one per transaction, which stinks, but separate your transactions out and here are a few possibilities:

=Total oop $.50(the last q might beep, it's valid usage of q's, to use the $1/2 on the two you're purchasing to GET the two free, but some stores may not let you combine them, so YMMV, even without that one, it's still only $1.50 oop!)

Or, if you don't have the $1/1 Kraft deli slices blinkie, you can do this:Buy6 Kraft shredded cheese $2.50/ea=$15.00

$5 off instantly=$10

Use3x Kraft bogo blinkies = $7.501 $1/1 Kraft blinkie

=$1.50 oop

ORif you live in the SE region of Kroger sales, and your cheese is $.99 after mega, you could do THIS(most of the times at Kroger, the register recognizes the "free" items value on a bogo coupon as the regular retail price, so, assuming the bags of kraft shredded cheese are regularly retail priced $3.69, the value would come off as $3.69 instead of $1.49 or $.99. Even if the coupon asks for an actual value to be entered, the cashier will usually enter $1.49 since that is the value of the item before mega).

So it might look like this (YMMV)8 Kraft cheese $.99/ea after mega=$7.92

Use4 Kraft bogo blinkies @ $3.69/ea = $14.76

=$6.84 Overage!

If the register takes off $1.49 for the sale price of the cheese, then your oop would be $1.96 for all 8. (If you are able to also use a X/XX with the bogo, then you could get this deal to go even lower, but I think the register will beep, the cashier would have to push it through.

For those of us in Nashville/Louisville region, our cheese is $1.67 after mega. So it would look like this:

Thursday, March 18, 2010

There are a bunch of really good Target deals right now and I haven't had a chance to get them all typed up, so I'm sorry for the late notice on these, but you have some time with most of them. :)

A word of caution. Target is notorious for being difficult to deal with. My advice is to go armed with a copy of their coupon policy (find it HERE) and practice a little cashier profiling. Their official policy is no overage, but that they will adjust coupons down to allow you to get the items free. (Often you'll have a cashier push through the q's and you will get overage, but I try not to count on it). In my deals here, there are some items that might give overage if the cashier pushes it through, but I'm not listing the overage in case you get a stickler.

Kids Character Band-Aids $1.54-$1.82-$1/1 Band-Aid Targetq HERE-$.50/1 mq 3.14.10 RP or $1/1 mq 1.03.10 RP=cheap to Free (Use this deal to get $5 MIR when you buy The Princess and The Frog)

Gillette Clinical .5oz (price cut) $1.79-$3/1 2.21.10 P&G, $4/2 2.21.10 P&G(These coupons exclude trial size, but this size is a specialty boxed product and not found with the travel sized items. I have found them on sides of endcaps at all the Targets I have been to. It does beep, but I've not had a problem using it on this product.)-Free Body Wash wyb Gillette Deo mq 3.7.10 P&G(this q does not exclude trial size and does not have a maximum price, so you should have no problems buying the small deo and getting the large body wash)=Free (along with a Free body wash if you use that q as well)

Gillette Body wash 8oz (price cut) $1.79-$4/2 2.21.10 P&G(These coupons exclude trial size, but this size is a specialty size, not the smallest trial size. The large/regular washes are 12oz. I have found these on sides of endcaps at all the Targets I have been to. It does beep, but I've not had a problem using it on this product.)=Free

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Office Max has a rewards program, OfficeMax Perks. You can sign up as a teacher or business owner. Since we are homeschooling, I signed up as a teacher. (and if you have children, you are a teacher. every day. ;) )

The way this works is, you buy items that earn "perks/rewards" and then those reward dollars go into your account. After you spend a certain amount ($75 for teachers), you earn an additional $10.You get paid quarterly (for teachers, not sure about businesses) and you can use your perks on anything in the store.

The best part is you get free shipping once you spend $50, plus, if you spend $75, you'll already earn the extra $10. So here's the items that are earning 100% Perks this week!If you're new to couponing, these are all the supplies you need for organizing your q's! I don't know about you guys, but I am always looking for deals on paper, so this is perfect timing!

Kroger's newest Mega sale is ON and there are a few good deals. Some differences between our region (the Louisville region) and the Southeast region, as always. The biggest one is the price of the Kraft and Sargento. Instead of $.99 after Mega, ours is $1.67 after Mega. Not so great. A few other differences, Comprehensive list is below.(Admittedly, I forgot to price check the meat items since we don't eat meat. Sorry! I'll check those next time I go in)

The Deal is: Buy 8 and get $4 off instantly (price listed is after savings)

Organic Foods· Annie’s Mac & Cheese at $.49 (This is a GREAT price!!! At my store today, they were anticipating a huge sale of these becasue they were putting out hundreds of boxes of them! ;) )**$15 in Organic Product Coupons wyb any Annies product HERE

OTHER DEALS~When getting overage at Kroger, here's what I've learned about Kroger's registers. If the regular retail price (before any sales/deals) is more than the coupon value, the coupon will not beep. If you have an item that is regular retail less than the face value of the coupon, it will beep and say "item not found", then the cashier can either push it through, or deny it.

Some Target deals to look out for. . . as always, don't forget your Target coupon policy when headed to the store. (just in case a cashier/mgr decides to refuse a coupon off a product that is over the value. Policy states they are to adjust the coupon. Sometimes you'll get the overage though...just depends...on the phase of the moon...rotation of the earth...etc...)

I'd also suggest walking the grocery section to see if there are any new tearpad/peelies/hangtags. I found $.50/1 Sobe mq hangtags today! Paired with the $.50/1 target printable I happened to have on me, at $1.08, these were $.08/ea and I am addicted to the orange tangerine flavor.

Gillette Body Wash 8oz $1.79 (price cut)-$4/2 mq 2.21.10 P&G {This coupon states "excludes trial size" But trial size items are between 1 and 2 ounces. This is an in-between size to the trial and the full size, I have found them on the side-caps in health and beauty}=2/Free (or overage YMMV)

Gillette Clinical Deodorant .5oz $1.79 (price cut)-$4/2 mq 2.21.10 P&G {This coupon states "excludes trial size" But trial size items are found in the trial area and not packaged in boxes. These are nicely packaged and not with trial-sized products. I have found them on the side-caps in health and beauty}Coupon did beep and required a "K1"-$3/1 mq 2.21.10 P&G {This coupon states "excludes trial size" But trial size items are found in the trial area and not packaged in boxes. These are nicely packaged and not with trial-sozed products. I have found them on the side-caps in health and beauty}Coupon did beep and required a "K1"=Free (or overage YMMV)

Check out Rite Aid clearance items! I found John Freida shampoo on clearance for $3.24 and $3.49. I bought 5 to get over $15 then used 5 $3 coupons. I will get back the $5 SCR!(If I had actually printed and taken in the $1/1 Frizz Ease VV q's, I could have taken off an additional $3)

If you are in the Louisville region (Nashville area stores are in the Louisville region- I don't think the SE region has this deal) the Energizer batteries 4-packs are 10/$10. Use the printable HERE or the $.50/1 from the 1.10.10 SS (doubled) for free batteries! Many stores also still have the $.75/1 tearpads making these $.25/ea which also a darn good deal!

I am going to stock up!

(Maybe someone from the SE region, Atlanta area, can tell me if they have found this deal...)

It's another great week at Rite Aid! See the scenario at the bottom for free diapers!Also, a lot of the deals this week are on Proctor and Gamble products. Don't forget to save those receipts to submit them for THIS coupon booklet! Last year, these were very high value coupons that were awesome! (Most stores will print a rebate receipt if you ask ahead of time that are valid for these deals)

**John Freida and Biore have the same SCR#. Limit is 3, but only a total of 3, mix 'n match.**John Frieda Root Awakening 3/$15, $5 SCR wyb $15-$3/1 John Freida 3.7.10 SS-$1/1 John Freida VV = $1/ea after coupon, then get back $5 SCR. Pair with a $5/20 and some free fillers and get yourself a bigger MM!**Look for clearance product! (My store had a Massive rack of clearance and I know I saw John Frieda on there ;) )

Biore Products $5/ea, earn $5 SCR wyb $15-BOGO mq 3.7.10 SS

~Scenario~2 Biore Strips $5/ea2 Biore Cleansers $5/ea=$20

Use$5/20BOGO mq= $5BOGO mq = $5$1/1 VVQ x4 =$4=-$19

=$1 oop, Earn $5 SCR~

Olay items are bogo50%Olay Regenerist cleanser $7.99 is the cheapest one.$3/1 Olay Regenerist Moisturizer or Cleanser 3.7.10 SS - See below for MM scenario!$15 MIR HERE (purchases must be made by 3.12.10, so do this one by Friday!)IF you do this MIR deal, be sure to ask for a rebate receipt b/c you will want to have receipts for these P&G products for YOUR COUPON BOOK as well! These are great coupons!

Total oop: -$.02 (my Rite Aid lets the coupons cover part of tax, if yours does not, throw in a small filler)

Earn $1 SCR for Crest and $12.73 toward PG rebate

Many Gillette items are on clearance. I found some deos for $2.24 so here's a scenario for you: (combine the Gillette deal with the Olay deal, use a $5/20 and repeat the Olay deal with fillers.... Then submit for the MIR for Olay)

Friday, March 5, 2010

I am passing along this request from my very closest friend that I have known for 22 years: She is going on a volunteer trip to Guatemala in a few weeks and has asked me if I have any (or know of anyone who has any) donated items she can take with her.

The group she is working with is called Common Hope. The group's main goal is a focus on education and providing support to families so that their children can graduate high school. Education is the key to move from poverty. Any donations we can send will help to redirect monies to other key necessities (building materials, doctors, etc).

Here is a list of items they are always looking for: (you can get toothbrushes and bandaids free at Target right now!):

School supplies (markers, pencils, construction paper, glue, scissors)Children's books in SpanishColoring booksBandaidsToothpasteTooth brushesSoapShampooIbuprofenTylenolVitamins (children;s multi, women's multi and prenatal)Socks (adult for old folks home, child for kids at Common Hope)Lotion (for old folks home)(anything else you have that you'd like to donate will be put to good use!)

If you have any of these items and would like to donate them to this very worthy cause, please send me an email at earthymamablogger@yahoo.com. I will be in Nashville, in the Brentwood area, next Friday and can collect anything for her at that time. If that is not a good time, she lives in the West End area and can probably meet up with anyone that would like to donate items at a more convenient time.

In addition, for those of you not local to Nashville, she will be flying out of Atlanta to Guatemala in a few weeks and can likely meet up while she is down there before leaving the states. So if you're in Georgia, and would like to donate items, shoot me an email and I'll connect you with her.

And lastly... (lol) if you're interested in donating but are not local to Nashville or north/middle GA, I am in the process of getting an address to ship items to, if anyone is interested.

KMart is having a Super Doubles event coming up. It has been a long while since we've seen this, and some new rules this time around- the biggest is, Limit 5 coupons per day and they're tying them into their new loyalty card program.

Various stores are participating, but not all.

For my Georgia readers, word on the street is that ALL Georgia stores are participating, as well as all Tennessee stores.

We'll have to wait until closer to time to see which ones really are. You can also send corporate an email to ask them if your local store is participating.

This whole loyalty card thing going to be a pain, but since the KMart is practically within walking distance of my house, at least I don't have to go out of my way.

Just a reminder that Nature's Bounty is bogo this week and you might be able to get overage on them with the printables HERE.

I have discovered that you have to buy an item that has a regular retail value higher than the coupon value for the coupon not to beep.If the coupon you use is HIGHER VALUE than the regular retail price, it will beep and say "exceeds item value".

So, if you're using a $5/1 ip, you want the regular retail price to be higher than $5 (bogo price of $2.50).

If you have a Kroger that accepts Publix as a competitor, and accepts competitor coupons (there are a few in Nashville, just ask them!) then the Sundown bogo sale (ends this week) can give you huge overage with the new green flyer coupon, I just would only get a few, I wouldn't go crazy with it!

There are a few freebies this week, using the paper coupon and ecoupon, but I only found a few. Yoplait Fiber One Yogurt is one. I think Nature's Valley might be good b/c there's an oyno cat printing for them. Really other than that, not much.

Slow week at Publix and Kroger, so catch your breath and spend your time at Wags and Rite Aid this week!

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